Limited English Proficiency (LEP) Access Plan

Background

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) is a federal government agency that protects the pension benefits of about 44 million American workers and retirees in about 27,500 active private sector defined benefit pension plans under the terms of Title IV of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, 29 U.S.C. § 1301-1461. In addition, PBGC has taken responsibility for paying the benefits of about 1.5 million workers and retirees covered by more than 4,000 terminated plans (both single-employer and multiemployer) and more than 100 multiemployer plans that currently or will require PBGC assistance to pay their benefits. Single-employer plans generally are maintained by one employer or by a group of companies under common control. Multiemployer plans generally are maintained by two or more unrelated companies under collective bargaining agreements with one or more unions.

PBGC is committed to providing individuals with access to our programs and services, regardless of their ability to communicate in English. We do not require individuals who need language assistance to provide their own interpreters; rather, we provide an interpreter free of charge to any individual requesting or otherwise requiring language assistance. Generally such service is provided by PBGC employees, particularly for Spanish-speaking individuals. However, PBGC does make use of contracted interpretation services when necessary.

Eligible Service Population

There are several discrete populations within which PBGC is most likely to contact individuals requiring language assistance. These include:

Workers, retirees, and beneficiaries who are pension plan participants - about 44 million

Premium payers (PBGC-insured pension plans) - about 27,500

Pension practitioners (attorneys, accountants, actuaries)

Of these three groups, only a small proportion of pension plan participants face barriers because of their limited English proficiency; premium payers and pension practitioners generally do not have difficulty with English.

Number or Proportion of LEP Individuals

In PBGC’s experience, less than 5 percent of all contacts (whether by telephone, e-mail, or correspondence) involve individuals who require language assistance. Virtually all of such contacts come from pension plan participants, and Spanish speakers dominate these contacts. Occasionally, PBGC comes across a pension plan in which Spanish-speaking participants account for most or all of the participants but generally they are a small minority if any exist at all. Much less frequently, we are contacted by people who require assistance in a language other than Spanish; the most common such languages are Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), French and Portuguese.

Frequency of Contact with the Program

PBGC's eligible service population does not have constant contact with PBGC's program. Rather, the contact occurs because of specific (and sporadic) events such as a plan's termination and trusteeship, or the participant's application for retirement benefits.

Nature and Importance of the Program

The guaranteed pension benefits that PBGC pays to our eligible service population are typically a significant portion of their retirement income. Thus, access to our insurance program is very important to most of the people we serve, and inaccessibility could cause severe hardship both immediately and in the long-term.

Resources Available

PBGC has the resources necessary to give people needing language assistance meaningful access to its programs.

» Currently Available Resources: The following services are now available to assist people with limited English proficiency:

PBGC's Benefits Administration and Payment Department has a Foreign Language Services unit that coordinates the delivery of services in Spanish and any other language needed. The staff of the unit is fluent in Spanish and provides in-house translation services in that language, and they have contracted with an outside firm for assistance in other languages;

The contracted service provides on-call interpretation and translation when needed, and it is quickly available to anyone within PBGC who needs this assistance to communicate with someone with limited English proficiency. The contracted firm can translate up to 147 different languages during phone calls. Through this contract, PBGC can also translate any written documents or prepare replies in another language.

PBGC's Customer Contact Center for pension plan participants (1-800-400-7242) has a recorded message in Spanish and gives the caller the option of speaking with a Spanish-speaking representative, along with interactive response options in Spanish. The contact center is staffed with representatives trained to handle language assistance situations, including Spanish-speaking representatives, and they have access to the contracted service provider (described above) to handle inquiries in any language other than Spanish;

Customer Contact Center letters confirming a participant's request, for example, to change the participant's address, now are all available in Spanish;

All form letters, whether a general one discussing PBGC’s trusteeship of a plan or a specific one discussing a participant's guaranteed benefit, have been translated into Spanish, all forms used for benefit administration have been translated into Spanish, and they can all be translated into other languages if needed; PBGC’s correspondence with participants also includes a paragraph in Spanish alerting the recipient that all such correspondence is available fully translated into Spanish;

All PBGC's principal publications for participants are published in Spanish, including its separate newsletters for current and future retirees in plans for which PBGC has taken responsibility. PBGC also includes a notice in Spanish in each English edition of these newsletters informing readers that the full newsletter and other PBGC materials are also available in Spanish;

PBGC also has translated into Spanish a “Welcome to PBGC” DVD that it provides to participants in plans newly taken over by PBGC;

PBGC's Appeals Board can accept and docket timely appeals received in Spanish and can translate Appeals Board decisions (always in English) to Spanish upon request.

» Resources Available in the Future: The following services will be available in Spanish:

Significantly expanded content on the website. PBGC is translating its “New to PBGC” page and much of the content available from that page, including its Glossary and contact information

How to Obtain Assistance from PBGC: People who will need language assistance in communicating with PBGC may obtain it by:

Calling or writing to PBGC’s Customer Contact Center. The contact center may be reached by calling 1-800-400-7242 (TTY/ASCII (American Standard Code of Information Interchange): call 1-800-877-8339 and ask to be connected to 1-800-400-7242), sending an email to mypension@pbgc.gov, or writing to PBGC, PO Box 151750, Alexandria, VA 22315-1750;